Displaced
by Trisar
Summary: Ranma wakes up from unwilling unconsciousness, meeting gazes with a beautiful young green eyed woman. He's never heard of her town, she's never heard of his city, and when he sees a map, he knows his trouble is just getting started. DISCONTINUED
1. Prologue: Introductions

Displaced

by Trisar Alvein

**THIS STORY IS HEREBY DISCONTINUED**

**Foreword**

Kind of a simple title, isn't it? Especially for me.

Oh well. I can't think of a proper pre-fic rant to throw at you readers, so you'll have to settle for a Trisar-style content advisory warning.

**Warning! Contents may explode under pressure, if read, if loaded, or exposed to the outside world in any way! Trisar Alvein does not take responsibility for what may happen to your brain if you read this!**

Enjoy.

* * *

Prologue: Introductions

* * *

It was a little known fact that Ranma Saotome positively despised the feeling of regaining consciousness after having forcibly lost it. Whenever it happened, it inevitably meant that he'd lost this consciousness because he lost a fight, as he kept healthy enough to never get sick and could take quite a knocking to the head without passing out, rendering accidental cranial impacts inconsequential.

He did note, however, that the usually painful state of semi-consciousness that came after losing a fight and waking up from it was remarkably pain-free.

_Hm... Maybe I didn't lose a fight after all. Maybe it was something that stupid tomboy tried to cook for me,_ he mused. But then, a lack of debilitating pains in his abdominal area made that an iffy possibility as well.

"He's waking up!" cried a little girl's voice. "Mama, come quick!"

"I'm coming, dear," was the response.

_Weird... That woman didn't sound old enough to be a mom,_ he thought, beginning to open his eyes. As expected, everything was blurry and much too bright for him to see. Still, he decided that opening his eyes was a step in the right direction, since his eyes were beginning to focus. Still, there was a large patch of bright green in his vision on top of some flesh tones.

When the image sharpened into a pretty girl with green hair and pale skin, he reflected that he really was not surprised at all. Her face was turned away, with his only look of her being in profile, while she was apparently checking him for injuries. When she turned to his face, her eyes locked with his, and he realized two things immediately.

The first was that he had been right: she was a very pretty girl, especially with her sparkling green eyes. The second thing he realized was that he was in someone's bed. Clothed, but in a bed. He immediately sat up, startling the girl and causing his vision to swim with dizziness. He recovered more quickly this time than he had at first, and looked around.

The room was fairly normal, almost spartan in fact. Giving it a bit of thought, he realized it was built western style, which really did nothing to help him figure out where he was, but at least gave him a detail to focus on. Rubbing lightly at his temple to ward off a headache, he turned to the girl, who had stepped back from his bed. "Where am I?" he asked. _Keep it simple, stupid. That's the ticket,_ he thought.

"You're in the town of Mobliz," she replied. "Some of the kids found you passed out at the outskirts, so Katarin and Duane, the only other adults who live here right now, brought you in here to me."

_She's the one I heard earlier..._ "I heard one of the kids call you 'Mama.' No way you're old enough to be one," he said with his usual bluntness.

The girl blushed slightly as she responded. "I'm not their real mother," she explained. "Their parents passed away about two years ago when this town was nearly destroyed. I've become their surrogate mother and, more or less, the mayor of the town until we can either move everyone to another city or get more people to come here."

_So... Mobliz... That doesn't sound familiar at all._ "Where exactly **is** Mobliz? You got a map?"

A quick nod found Ranma looking at what the girl claimed was a map of the world, with a small isthmus circled on what appeared to be a very long snake.

_Okay, yeah, this is bad. Could be worse, though. At least they speak Japanese... somehow... What's up with that, anyway?_

"By the way, we haven't introduced ourselves," said the girl. "My name is Terra Branford. Pleased to meet you."

"Uh... Ranma Saotome. Pleased ta meetcha right back." Having given his name, Ranma stood up, happy to note that his clothes were intact, though his shoes had apparently gone missing. _Okay, definitely not on my world anymore, so how did I get here?_

"Where are you from, Ranma? And how did you end up in Mobliz?" asked Terra conversationally, fixing the mussed sheets on the bed.

"I don't suppose you've ever heard of a place called 'Tokyo'?" he deadpanned. When she shook her head, he continued, "Yeah, I didn't think so... In that case, who I am is gonna be a very long story, and I have no idea how I got here."

Terra considered this, then sat down on the bed, looking Ranma in the eye. "I've got time, and you don't have anywhere to go. I'm willing to listen," she said.

Ranma smirked. "Alright then. I'll tell you my story if you tell me yours."

"You have a deal."

"Well, the story of my life starts when I was six years old. My dad was training me in martial arts, and..."

---

There was enough tension in the air to cut it with a butter knife, upon past reflection.

_There's no doubting it. I mean, the fact that none of us are warriors reduces the credibility of it, but... this is definitely a council of war,_ thought a girl, sitting at her dining room table with her family and guests. The stern faces of two members of her family, as well as the two members present from another family, were behind her mental declaration.

"So, let me get this straight," she said, hoping to clarify. "All of you were present at this fight, yet none of you know exactly what happened to Ranma-kun?"

"That's correct, Nabiki-kun," answered the portly, older man in a somewhat dirty white gi, known to others as Genma Saotome. "My boy was fighting Mousse in the back yard here, seemingly business as usual, when they hit the koi pond. There was a bright flash, and then the next thing we know, Mousse is in duck form, stunned from the light and nearly drowning in the pond."

"And he didn't have any ancient artifacts?" pressed Nabiki.

"None. The amazon mummy and the master gave him a thorough search."

"How thorough?"

"They tapped him on the chest, somehow causing all the contents of his hidden weapons pockets to empty out underneath him," explained Genma with a perfectly straight face. She would have doubted his testimony, but her family was nodding in agreement.

Rubbing at the bridge of her nose to stave off a headache, Nabiki continued, "Okay, so what happened immediately **before** the fight?"

The sheepish look on the face of Akane, her younger sister, did nothing to help her confidence. "W-well, he said he was hungry, so I thought I'd make him some lunch... He didn't know it was mine, and neither did anyone else, but..."

"But?" pressed Nabiki.

"Well, everyone except Uncle Genma liked it, then he and Ranma ate some and went crazy with coughing," explained Akane.

Nabiki blinked. Then she blinked again. "Kasumi, do we still have any of what Akane fixed?" she asked. Kasumi nodded and went off to retrieve it, while Nabiki's eyes narrowed in predatory manner as **she** stalked over to the phone. One quick phone call later, and Cologne, Mousse, and Shampoo joined the group around the Tendo dining table as Kasumi brought in what appeared to be reheated curry.

Cologne raised an eyebrow. "Nabiki, if you invited us over here for dinner to discuss terms of surrender..."

"Nothing like that, Elder. Just call it a pet theory. I'd like everyone to try some of this curry, Jusenkyo-cursed folks last."

Much to the surprise of everyone who knew what the substance was, it was not only edible, but good. Cologne, herself, was rather suspicious of the entire situation but also testified to that effect. When Mousse, Shampoo, and Genma each tried a bite, however, the reactions were quite the contrast.

"**What** did you just feed us that has those three on the ground?" asked Cologne, glancing at the three curse victims as they appeared to be caught between violent coughing and attempting to induce vomiting.

"Like I said, pet theory... Looks like little sister has managed to create a curry that anyone cursed by Jusenkyo is allergic to," deadpanned Nabiki. _Of course, I've got **another** theory on this as well, but sharing it would be a very bad idea..._

---

Terra gaped in open shock at Ranma as he concluded his story. She blinked rapidly, as if hoping to dispel the illusion before her. No luck. She searched the face for any hint of dishonesty or deceit, but finally had to admit that her meager skills at reading people all concluded that the pigtailed boy was telling the truth.

"I can really only think of one thing to say," she said, finally recovering a little. "Ranma, your father is **insane**."

"I wouldn't say insane... He's just so stupid he never thinks things through. Ever. Even in hindsight." _I'm not that much better, but at least __**after**__ everything I can look back and see where I went wrong,_ he groused mentally. _Pops didn't even think about what would happen after Jusenkyo when Ma came around. Not until after she showed up, anyway._

Terra nodded in agreement with the assessment, finding several parallels between Ranma's life and her own. _Those same parallels can be drawn with Celes's, Gau's, and Sabin's lives too,_ she mused.

"Well, that's the story of my life. It sounds pretty unbelievable, yeah, but..."

"Wait until my story, Ranma. After living it, yours doesn't seem so far-fetched. The real story of my life begins about one thousand years ago, long before I was born, during a time called 'the War of the Magi.' Espers, a powerful magical race, fought with humanity..."

* * *

**Post-chapter Notes**

Well, not much to say. Yes, I know Terra's original design (and her FMV presence in Final Fantasy Anthology) depict her as blonde, but her in-game sprite and portrait show green hair, not gold. Also, don't expect too much in-fic exposition as to backstories. If you're not familiar with Ranma, I'm sorry, but going over thirty-eight volumes of sheer chaos for the sake of one fanfic is a bit much. If you're not familiar with Final Fantasy VI, again, sorry, but cataloging the history of an entire **world** for one fanfic is **too** much. It's not feasible. At all.

Of course, the better question is, if you're serious anime and VG fans (especially enough to comprehensively read a crossover fanfic like this), why **wouldn't** you be familiar with Ranma or FFVI?

Well, see you next mission.


	2. Chapter One: This World I'm In

Displaced

by Trisar Alvein

**THIS STORY IS HEREBY DISCONTINUED**

**Foreword**

I know a lot of you, specifically those who've read my works before, are thinking, "Oh God, here comes his rant."

Well, poo diddle on you, no rant today. However, to satisfy people who desire a disclaimer (despite it being glaringly obvious that I don't own Final Fantasy VI _or_ Ranma ½), I don't own Final Fantasy VI or Ranma ½. FFVI is copyright 1994 Square Co., Ltd (now Square-Enix), licensed by Nintendo. Ranma ½ is copyright 1993 Rumiko Takahashi and Shogakukan, Inc.

On a technical note, I probably didn't make it clear enough in the prologue (and, this time, I'll admit it's entirely my fault), but _Displaced_ takes place _after_ the events of FFVI. Indications of this can be found in that Ranma woke up in a house, not underground, and Terra talked about "moving the kids away" or "moving others into" the city.

I just realized that part of this problem is because of the fact that Mobliz was torched when Kefka became "God". And the World of Ruin segment of FF6 takes place one year later... whoops. I went back to correct that.

However, just because there's no more Kefka, don't think that's the end of the antagonism.

Bolded words indicate emphasis, such as when a martial artist calls out their technique names while focusing their ki. Italicized words are thoughts when not in dialogue. In dialogue, they represent spell-cast attempts—in tabletop RPG terms, they're the "verbal components" of a spell.

* * *

Chapter One: This World I'm In...

* * *

Ranma frowned as he stepped out of the house he'd woken up in. New information fed itself into his brain through both his physical senses and his more esoteric ones. His ears heard the wind rustling leaves and grass nearby before it blew across him, while his eyes saw a sun descending over the horizon in twilight. He felt the chill of an approaching autumn eve, shivering slightly in his light clothing, while his nose picked up none of the scents he normally associated with the night breeze.

By contrast, his perception of the world through ki was levels different from what he was used to. Somehow, it seemed clearer than it ever had. Filtering his ki sense through his vision almost on instinct, he was able to identify nearly every individual kid among the dozen milling about in one of the nearby houses simply by the glows of their aura. Glancing downward, he could see a brilliant blue glow that caused him to squint against its intensity, something else that made him frown.

That was Terra's aura, which swirled around her with enough power that even Herb would have flinched. Given that the cursed prince had had reserves deep enough to simply launch burst after burst of ki for hours with no visible strain, which was **not** an efficient use of one's ki, the fact that Terra's own life energy went even deeper still was a disquieting notion, saying nothing of the tale she had just told him—a tale that would have been unbelievable if his life hadn't been so extreme itself.

Yet that was another problem. He knew his **perception** of ki had not grown enough to warrant this level of a clarity jump, if only because his abilities were never this sharp back on his world. He would have been able to **sense** Terra's location easily, but given the blanket effect of her power, he would have had to make a somewhat vague guess at about the center of her aura rather than being able to pinpoint it.

And there was one other thing bothering him.

"Why haven't I gotten splashed yet?" he mused, glancing around warily. Ever since his dive into Jusenkyo, it often seemed like water would actively seek him out, sometimes moving in direct defiance of natural law and common sense to trigger his curse, whether one way or another. _Then again, maybe it just takes more than a few hours to warm up in a new world_, he wondered.

"You must be Ranma," said a calm, friendly voice from behind him, surprising him with its suddenness. He turned to face its source, seeing a tall, albeit fairly young, man with thick brown hair. If the lean, toned build he sported were any indication, he was no stranger to hard labor, and the look in his eyes spoke of someone who had experienced both the greatest joys and some of the greatest sorrows life could ever have.

"That's me," replied Ranma. "You're... Duane?" he asked, recalling the names of the only other adults in Mobliz besides Terra herself. _And since he doesn't exactly look like a Katarin..._

Fortunately for Ranma, the man nodded in reply. "Yep. Katarin and some of the kids found you passed out on the outskirts of town. You're lucky some wild animal didn't decide to come make a meal of you before we got there," he said. "Anyway, I'm afraid we really can't let you stay here for free... We only have enough food for everyone because everyone works to keep the village going. If you've got any skills you can use to help out, it would be great. Otherwise..."

Ranma frowned in contemplation. It didn't look like fighters would be in any great demand in Mobliz, and he doubted his own meager cooking skills would contribute much in this world. However, all of his training had granted him superhuman strength, dexterity, and agility, which were traits that could be applied to nearly any form of manual labor.

A dull roar caught the attention of both boys, and they turned toward the direction it had come from, seeing a large creature approaching from the east, thick arm muscles rippling beneath ebon skin with every movement, a protruding gut overshadowing one spindle-thin leg, while its other leg was nearly as prodigious as its arms, and spiked scales and a long tail ran down its back.

"What the hell is that?" asked Ranma, moving instinctively between the beast and Duane. His combative instincts had examined Duane's aura and determined him a noncombatant, which ran the processes through his honor code and determined that Duane was to be protected.

"That can't be Humbaba, Terra destroyed it," mumbled Duane with a frown. "It **can't** be."

"If it **can't** be that, why do you keep sounding like it **is**?" asked Ranma with a growl, before dashing forward towards the creature, blocking its path. _If it gets any closer to the village, these kids will be in danger,_ he realized, adopting a fighting stance. "Who are you?!" he said, obviously calling a challenge.

"I Kingu," rumbled the black mountain, red eyes glinting as it glared down at Ranma. "I come for revenge for brother Humbaba," he continued, taking a menacing step forward. "Little man move or be crushed."

"Hmph! I don't care if you're an ogre or a dragon, you take one more step towards this village, and I'll drop you so hard it'll make the tornado I called against Saffron look like a stiff breeze!" grinned the pigtailed fighter, aggression seeping from his pores.

"Duane! What's going on?" called Terra's voice from behind, causing Ranma's head to turn slightly. "Ranma... Humbaba?!"

Kingu capitalized on the minor distraction, thrusting his immense fist forward, hoping to crush Ranma in a single blow. Ranma's form shifted suddenly, and Kingu toppled forward, completely off-balance as the much smaller fighter deftly stepped aside, grabbed the wrist in front of him, and tugged hard.

Leaping up with his advantage, Ranma then rebounded off his foe's elbow, gaining a sudden burst of speed and power and landing a devastating kick to Kingu's chin, launching the beast back several feet and into a nearby rock formation, crushing the stones beneath his mass. Unfazed, Kingu leapt back up at Ranma, who was preening over an apparently easy win. With surprising agility for his size, Kingu spun around, his tail smacking into Ranma with numbing force.

"Ranma!" yelled Terra, dashing to where the pigtailed boy lay from his impromptu flight, a deep trench leading to the center of the village marked where he'd hit the ground, leading to his stopping point.

"Bleugh!" spat Ranma in response, forcibly expelling dirt from his mouth after getting his head out from the ground. _That jerk hits harder than Taro!_ he realized, pushing himself to a sitting position. Sitting only, as his legs were still twitching from the force, which had apparently rattled his spine severely. He dimly noted as Terra grabbed his arm to steady him, a sudden wave of nausea and dizziness overcoming him and causing him to sway.

Terra turned her head back to the attacking monster, and her eyes widened while her grip tightened on Ranma's arm in a sudden panic as Kingu ripped a large chunk of landscaping out of the nearby mountainside, hurling it towards her and Ranma. _Flare, Firaga, Thundaga, any of those spells would work here, and I can't cast them anymore!_ ran through her mind, when both she and Ranma suddenly felt a tug.

Both parties watched as balls of pure energy materialized from the ether around the rock, coalescing rapidly into it, before it exploded violently outward in mid-flight, scattering small chunks of sand and dirt about harmlessly.

"What the hell?" frowned Ranma, having been ready to grab Terra and quickly jump away as best he could.

_That was... Flare!_ realized Terra, standing with a bit of confusion as she looked down at her hands. "Has magic returned to this world...?" she murmured, then glanced down at her hands. "Only one way to be sure." She leveled her palms toward Kingu. "_Firaga!_"

One can hardly blame Kingu for flinching in this situation, as Firaga was well known as one of the strongest fire-elemental spells in existence that didn't also have a history of ill-effects for the caster. However, when his world failed to explode around him, he glanced speculatively at the one who'd tried to barbecue him. A little girl, barely older than the boy he was fighting, if even that. What did she think she could—

"**Moko Takabisha!**"

A bright blue comet streaked downrange toward Kingu, solidly striking him in his prodigious abdomen and sending him hurtling backwards from its force, leaving him stunned both at its sudden appearance and its unexpected power.

"That'll teach you to take your eyes off the fight," smirked Ranma, stepping up beside Terra. "Terra, what were you—" he began, setting his hand on her shoulder, not noticing his finger brush the skin of her neck.

Terra, however, hadn't been paying attention, and lifted her hands up again towards Kingu just as Ranma touched her. "_Thundaga!_" she intoned forcefully. Both jumped back as an enormous lightning bolt stabbed down out of the sky, spearing Kingu and giving him the shock of his life.

"Um, Terra, how'd you do that?" asked Ranma, glancing warily at the green-haired girl now that Kingu seemed very much out of it.

"I've always been able to, but... just under a year ago, magic left this world... the source of it was destroyed."

Ranma blinked incredulously. "**That** was what you meant by magic in your story? I thought magic was like, stuff that made you change what body you were in, or make you heat-resistant, or stuff like that..."

"Your curse is magic too, Ranma, but..." _Wait... Magic __**is**__ gone from this world, but Ranma isn't of this world... and both times..._ Terra's thoughts drifted off as she glanced speculatively over at Ranma, whose attention had drifted away from Terra when she was silent and now focused on a bad tear his shirt had taken in the fight. Below the tear, she could quite visibly see bruised, tenderized flesh that had resulted from the blow Ranma took from Kingu. She quickly grabbed him by the arm, gesturing with one hand toward the bruise and uttering, "_Curaga._"

Brilliant motes of multicolored light scattered about the pair as the bruise quickly receded, though Terra had only been able to see the barest portion of it through the rip in Ranma's shirt. With a look that perfectly expressed his confusion, the pigtailed boy lifted up the hem of his shirt, revealing his lean, toned abdomen and chest with no trace of the earlier bruise. "Wow. **That's** magic? I heal fast, but not that fast! Thanks, Terra!"

Terra almost smiled at the gratitude, which was a welcome change from the fear she received just a few years ago for demonstrating her magic. Then she realized she had a firm grip on a very toned arm belonging to a very handsome, nearly shirtless boy. And for the first time in her life, Terra did something she felt was completely natural, quickly releasing Ranma's arm and turning away with a faint blush.

As she turned away, she felt something else. At first she thought it was just more symptoms of newly-discovered bashfulness—her face was burning red with embarrassment after all. _But, no, wait... My face... __**is**__ burning... it hurts..._ she realized, swaying unsteadily as the burning sensation spread throughout her body. Her blood felt like it was liquid flame. Her knees buckled, sending her to the ground, and the pain only increased, causing her to groan slightly.

"Terra?" Who asked? Was it Ranma? Duane?

"Hurts... my blood is... boiling... I'm... on fire," she gasped out. The sensation of being ablaze peaked, white-hot pain coursing through her veins. A scream ripped forth from her.

Then, all was blackness.

---

"Terra?" Ranma asked, turning as he heard the girl groan in pain. He walked over to her, sensing her ki spiking wildly. As he knelt down next to her, he saw she was deathly white and trembling.

"Hurts..." she gasped. "My blood is... boiling... I'm... on fire..."

Ranma frowned. She looked like she was freezing to death, not burning. "Hang on, I'm gonna get you inside," he said, reaching out and grabbing her to pick her up. A mistake, as he soon realized.

Terra's ki spiked again, this time as a tangible wave of power that, while weak, was sufficient to blast away all the loose dust around them. Far more dramatic was the effect on Ranma's sixth sense, the power crashing against him and causing him to stagger backwards. Even more dramatic was the scream Terra let out—she was screaming in two voices. One was obviously hers, the second was far higher pitched, more shrill.

Covering his ears, Ranma grit his teeth as he realized it mostly blocked the voice that he knew was Terra's but did nothing to stop that second, keening howl. Luckily, after a few seconds, Terra fell completely silent. Uncovering his ears, Ranma ran over to her, only to recoil in mild shock and extreme embarrassment. As Duane and Katarin ran up, the blushing teenager quickly spun around and exclaimed, "I didn't see nothin'!" This was, strictly speaking, very untrue, as he now had an image of Terra, only pink skinned and with long, wildly unbound hair, and without a stitch of clothing on her burned into his brain.

"This again?" Duane's voice asked, sounding puzzled. "I thought she—oof—said this would never happen because magic was gone..."

"Maybe, uff," Katarin grunted, and Ranma turned to see the two carrying Terra back to the village. "Maybe magic isn't as gone as she thought? Ranma, can you help us, here?"

"Uh, r-right..." Ranma's reply was fairly uneasy, but he very easily took Terra off of Duane's and Katarin's hands, taking her back into the house where he'd woken up and setting her in the bed. Unsure of what else to do, he got a bowl of cold water and a few strips of cloth from Duane and Katarin, wet one of the strips down, and placed it across Terra's forehead. Once done, he sat down in the chair next to the bed.

Then, he settled in for the long wait.

Somehow, he just knew this would take a while.

* * *

**Post-Chapter Notes**

Uh... Okay. Yeah. This took entirely too long to write. My bad.

I need to kick my muse into high gear, I guess. Still, enjoy!

See you next mission.


	3. Chapter Two: Where Am I Now!

Displaced

by Trisar Alvein

**THIS STORY IS HEREBY DISCONTINUED**

**Foreword**

Here comes the rant! Muahahaha!

No! No rant for you!

Just fic!

Muahahahahaha!

* * *

Chapter Two: Where Am I Now?!

* * *

_It's so hot... Feels like I'm melting... Why is it so hot...?_

_"Terra."_

_F-Father...?_

_"Yes, Terra. It is I, Maduin."_

_Father... It burns... What's wrong with me...?_

_"That boy... He is unnatural here. He does not belong. You must kill him."_

_What?_

_"Kill him, Terra. Kill that boy."_

_Why? I'm not natural either... not in the typical sense... Why do I have to kill the one person who can relate to me?_

_"Kill him, I said! Do as your father tells you!"_

_N-no!_

_**"KILL HIM, TERRA!"**_

_No! Leave me alone!_

"Terra! What's wrong?!"

_**"KILL HIM!!"**_

Terra's eyes snapped open. She was awake. There was Ranma, his face wrought with concern, blue eyes intently locked onto hers. He looked, for some reason, so fragile... so frail... so...

... So weak...

_**KILL HIM!!!**_ echoed in her mind. She lifted herself into a sitting position and turned, uncaring of the covers pooling at her feet, baring her before this man. He was weak, so human, wholly unnatural. His blushing and stuttering turned her heart to ice. He didn't even have the strength of will to retain his composure in the face of her bare flesh.

"T-T-Terra, a-are you alright?" he stammered.

Her voice was flat as she replied. "Yes, Ranma. I'm fine." She stood up, dislodging the wet cloth on her forehead and sending it to join her discarded blanket on the floor. Now on her own two feet, she stood in all her glory before this man, staring him in the eye where before she had to look up to do that. She stepped forward, reaching. He stood paralyzed, eyes wide, seemingly unaware of her plans, or perhaps believing she meant to do something else entirely.

She could only imagine his shock as her hands locked around his throat, lifting him and crushing the life from him. "Kill," she whispered, almost purring the word. How he struggled! Futile! How he writhed! Pointless! How he kicked!

Oh,_how_ he kicked, she reflected, as Ranma's foot found a very solid connection to her jaw despite his disadvantageous position, knocking her back to the bed and forcing her to release him.

Ignoring the pain he had caused her was simple as she regained her feet, walking over to the coughing boy attempting to recover his breath. As he looked up at her, still struggling for air, she returned the favor, dealing a harsh kick to his jaw, the force of which sent him flying not simply into, but rather through the wall behind him and clear across the field, where he crashed through the wall of yet another house.

There was a slight pain in her leg which she similarly ignored, springing through the hole and levitating in the air, staring into the house as fire gathered in her hand. She cocked back, prepared to unleash it.

_What am I doing?_ wondered a small voice in the back of her mind. She paused. What **was** she doing? _Why am I trying to kill Ranma?_

_Because Daddy said so!_ Firming that thought in her mind, she prepared herself to throw the fire again.

_Why would Father tell me to kill Ranma?_ The voice, once again, gave her pause. _He loved humans. I'm proof of that. He may have been the only Esper who did._

Terra hesitated again, longer this time. _Be... because... I don't know! He just did!_ She then raised her hand again. Too late.

"**Moko Takabisha!**" roared Ranma's voice, the blue bolt of energy striking her in the stomach. She was about to pass it off as negligible in its force when it then detonated, dropping her to the ground with a grunt.

_That... that insolent human!_ she raged mentally, pushing herself back to her feet. Her leg throbbed suddenly, causing her to stumble. _How dare he strike me!_

_He's defending himself! You're trying to kill him!_ returned the voice, causing her to hesitate before she could strike back.

_Shut up! Shut up! Daddy said to kill him! So I'm going to KILL HIM!_ she roared, drowning out the voice as she gathered fire into both hands, pitching the swirling blaze at him with a wordless cry. Once more, pain struck her leg, causing her to stumble.

"Sorry, Pops, I guess this had to happen! **Kijin Raishuu Dan!**" yelled Ranma in reply, snapping his arm smoothly toward her. She couldn't see what it was supposed—her triumphant and confident thoughts died a horrible death when her fireball appeared to suddenly be sucked in upon itself.

And then she saw the distortion of the air. She tried to dodge, but her leg refused, the pain too great to focus, to fly away. The distortion was knife edged—it carved a deep gouge in her chest, blood spraying as she was thrown to the ground again. _N-no... I-impossible... Daddy... said to kill him... Daddy said..._

_You're wrong!_ cried the voice, sounding now in tears. _Father would never tell us to kill Ranma! He would never! We hate killing! No one can ever love you if you kill everyone around you!_

Tears formed in Terra's eyes as she lay on her side, looking up at Ranma as he began treating the wounds he had just caused. He was yelling something, but she only heard a blank noise over everything.

_Love..._ That word had a certain ring to it. _That's right... all I want... is to be loved... I... I don't want to kill anyone anymore..._

Then the blackness overtook her vision.

"TERRA!"

"Terra!"

She snapped awake again, sitting up. Green strands fell across her vision even as pain filled her mind. She grimaced, groaning, and doubled over, clutching her chest with her pale, cream-colored hands. It felt like someone had stuck a knife in her and cut her from one side to the other, just under her breastbone. And then she saw... Her skin had been wrapped in a bandage, a bandage now stained red with blood—her blood, she realized. Blood which no longer boiled, held back by skin which was, she now realized, no longer that pinkish color.

Then a strong, calloused hand gripped her shoulder and, without so much as a by-your-leave, pushed her back into a prone position. Focusing her vision, she glanced up the very toned, very thick arm, eventually fixing her gaze on a very concerned face of a dear comrade, one Sabin Rene Figaro, who looked very much relieved to see her awake. "Well, that takes care of asking you if you're awake," he said with a grin.

"I could have stood a couple more hours," she admitted quietly, grimacing slightly at the soreness in her jaw. "What happened? Ranma!" she tried to sit up again, but Sabin would have none of it, holding her down. "Where's Ranma?" she asked after finally settling and allowing herself to stay on her back.

"That's the kid with the braid in the red shirt, right? He's helping Setzer unload supplies from the Falcon. Apparently, he knows his way around first aid. That cut on your chest was pretty nasty, but the way he patched it up? I don't think it'll even scar." Sabin paused to consider that. "Well, not badly, at least. A cut that bad will leave some scarring, but nothing severe."

Terra lay in silence for a moment. "Sabin... could you... go get Ranma for me? I need to speak with him. It's important." She could hear the voice again, the one that thundered that she should kill him, but she was able to ignore it now. Besides that, she could feel It again. That prickling sensation, the slight boiling of her blood... the sensation she hadn't felt since Valigarmanda spoke to her. That strange feeling that had preceded her first transformation into an Esper, a change that had filled her with fear and horror... horror that she might...

_That I might do exactly what I did_, she realized.

_I can't believe I did that,_ murmured a second thought. That voice. The one she'd found herself arguing against when she was trying to kill Ranma. Or had the voice that was obeying 'Daddy' been the one she was arguing with, and had the small voice protesting it been the real her?

_Or maybe I'm just going crazy._ she mused. _Disassociated, multiple personalities. Except they're all speaking in my head all at once, and one of them sounds like my father, so I guess they're not really disassociated. Sounds fun._

_How could I do that to Ranma?_ wondered that quiet, almost timid voice. _If anything, I should thank him... If it hadn't been for him, Kingu might have killed someone before I could have stopped it. Why did I want to kill him?_

It was then that she realized Ranma was there, twiddling his thumbs and apparently looking everywhere but at her.

_Why was I so irritated by him not looking at me before? It's actually a little funny that he's even more bashful than me._ In fact, Terra did let out a quiet giggle. "Ranma, you can look. I'm covered up."

"Just making sure you wouldn't mind... I mean, you've got a pretty hard kick, and I guess you were mad about something the other day, so..."

"'The other day?' How long was I out?"

"Three days. Katarin and Carolin have been taking care of ya, then the... what'd that guy call it... oh! The _Falcon_, it got here with Sabin and that weird guy who keeps flipping a coin. There were also a few other people with 'em, folks I guess who were related to some of the kids living here. Let's see... A couple of 'em said they were from Nih-kay-uh—"

"Nikeah," absently corrected Terra, feeling a sudden pit forming in her stomach at this news.

"Yeah, that. Rest of 'em said they were from some place called Korinjen or something..."

"Kohlingen."

"Right. Um... Most of 'em were some of the kids' aunts and uncles, and they wanted to talk to you about takin' the kids with 'em back home..."

Terra bit her lower lip, feeling the pit in her stomach deepen.

"Most of 'em don't wanna go, but..." Ranma trailed off, a look of understanding on his face. Terra knew. She sighed.

"How many?"

"Six. Rebecca, Leon, Claire, Jill, Chris, and Barry. Them and their aunts and uncles are waiting outside for me to tell 'em if they can come in or not." He was now tugging at his pigtail nervously.

"Is there **any** good news?" asked Terra in an absolutely miserable tone.

"Well, about half of the ones who came here did because they wanted to live here with the rest of their family anyway, not have 'em leave, so I guess that's good. The others, the ones who didn't wanna take the kids **or** stay here with 'em, now they're the trouble."

"I'm sure I'll regret asking, but why?'

Ranma scrunched up his face in irritation. "They're not related to anyone in the village. They came here because they heard rumors about a village being run by a bunch of kids. I guess they musta missed the memo about the world being destroyed because they were yelling all about taking the kids somewhere safe to live and crap like that."

"They**were** yelling about that?"

Glancing nervously aside, Ranma chuckled in a way that implicated him of guilt before he said anything. "Well, uh, Sabin got fed up with it because, how he put it was 'living in the same village as Terra is safer than anywhere else in the world right now' or something. Then he punched one of them in the face. Another started hollering at me about it, so I punched **him** in the face too. That shut the rest of 'em up, but now a couple of 'em are waiting for you out there too."

Terra strongly resisted the urge to groan.

"Oh yeah, Katarin sewed you up a new dress since your, um... your transformation kinda destroyed your old one. It's on the chair there." Ranma pointed over to a chair where a light green dress sat draped over the back. Terra found a bit of ease in looking at it, wondering how it would fit and how she'd look.

"I see... Can you go wait up at the front, Ranma? I'll get dressed, then handle this mess." Ranma nodded and quickly left, but Terra saw a lack of tension in his movements, beyond the bit of it he'd shown ever since he arrived.

_I suppose he must still be adjusting to this world. Well, since Setzer is here, he can go visit Cid now. But if he's so... relaxed around me, I guess he must not be afraid of me,_ she reasoned, pulling herself out of bed. Wincing as her injuries protested the movement—though less than she thought they would—she walked over to the chair, dressing quickly. When she walked to the front after, she saw Ranma leaning casually against the wall, glancing up as she walked up and blushing.

"The, uh... the dress looks nice on ya. Ready for 'em?" he asked, coughing and working his blush away.

Terra shook her head, walking over. "Ranma, I... I want to apologize," she said, her expression saddening. She could still see the dark bruise around his throat from where she'd been trying to literally squeeze the life out of him. "I don't know what happened, or why, but it's my fault. I should have been in better control of myself, but I wasn't, and..."

"It wasn't you." Her apology was cut off by his rather frank interruption. She glanced up, mouth agape, wondering what he meant. "I've got experience with berserking. Personal experience. Akane and Pops and them used to always say that when I was in the Cat-Fist, I'd be giving 'em a look like I just wasn't there anymore. That's what it was here. Terra's face has these little dimples when she smiles, and creases when she's sad. It never gets these little furrows when she's angry. So it was someone else using your body. And trust me, I've got experience with possessions, too."

"R-Ranma..." Terra's mouth hung open for a moment, then she smiled.

Ranma grinned back. "See? There's that smile with them little dimples."

The girl reached out, pressing a finger lightly to the back of Ranma's wrist, feeling the tingle of her magic again. Her blood simmered at the touch, but this time, she found the strength of will to restrain it as she waved a hand in front of the boy in front of her, then at herself. "_Cura_," she intoned softly, causing sparkles of green light to wash over them. As they faded, she felt refreshed, the bruise on her jaw and the pain in her chest completely gone, and she saw the discoloration on Ranma's throat fade.

"Better, huh? I guess you're ready for—" Ranma cut himself off as Terra pulled him into a sudden hug.

It didn't last long, and Terra obviously didn't mean it to, as she let go after only a few seconds, smiling still. "Thank you for being so nice. Sometimes... it's hard to remember that there's such a thing as kindness." She wiped suddenly at an eye, clearing away a tear. "I'm ready to talk to them now, but I'd like you here too. Just in case someone needs punched in the face."

Ranma grinned. "Right. That's a plan I can get behind."

---

Looking out on the vastness of the plains, the blonde woman couldn't help but wonder aloud... "Remind me again why we didn't just wait for Setzer to pick us up? Or at least ride a chocobo? It might just be my sanity talking again when I told it to be quiet, but I'd like to get to Mobliz some time this month, and walking there from Albrook takes forever."

"Because," chided her companion, wagging his finger at her over his shoulder.

Waiting, the blonde developed a slight tick when he didn't elaborate. "Because what?"

"It's a sec—"

"You're one syllable away from losing that which makes you most valuable," threatened the woman, drawing her sword.

"My head?"

"One of them."

Gulping, the man turned and waved his hands in a placating manner at the blonde. "I just want to surprise them, Celes, that's all!"

Celes snorted, putting her sword away. "You're so immature." She continued walking, approaching him as her white cloak billowed behind her in a sudden breeze, revealing a form-fitting green leotard underneath. "But that, and your devotion, are why I'm still with you a year later, Locke Cole. Don't keep me waiting on that ring for too long."

Locke gaped. He stared. He goggled. "How did you... when did... what..."

Laughing, Celes walked by, leaving the thief—

"Treasure hunter, damn you!"

—ahem, leaving the treasure hunter gaping in her wake... at least until both noticed the muscular looking man in the yellow shirt walking toward them. Dark hair framing his young face, the man said, "Excuse me... Do you know where the Tendo dojo is? I swear I was **just** there."

"Tendo dojo? The only dojo I know is Duncan's place, and I'm pretty sure his name isn't Tendo..."

The young man scratched his head. "Um... What about Tokyo?"

"Never heard of it," replied Locke without missing a beat. The corner of his mouth twitched slightly. "Hey, if you're really hard up for directions or something, why not follow us for a bit? We're heading off to visit a friend of ours. It's better than wandering aimlessly to find somewhere, right?"

Nodding, the dark-haired man adjusted his pack. "Thanks for helping me like this. My sense of direction isn't exactly the best. I'm Ryoga Hibiki."

"Locke Cole."

"Celes Chere." Celes blinked when Ryoga suddenly glanced away with a blush when he looked at her. _Must be the shy type. It beats all the soldiers who used to leer at me,_ she reasoned. "Come on. Mobliz is a long ways off. At least two or three days."

---

Terra suppressed a sigh. The easy part was over—the relatives and children who wanted to leave were just waiting for Setzer to start the _Falcon_ back up and lift them away. The hard part of that would come later: dealing with the loss of the boys and girls she'd started to think of as her own children. Also dealt with were the ones who wanted to stay, people Terra was only too glad to speak with. Many of the people were skilled fishermen and farmers, with several carpenters and other laborers who could help rebuild and maintain Mobliz.

The immediate difficulty, then, came from this last group. The ones who seemed adamantly opposed to her staying in Mobliz and the children staying with her. Their arguments had been largely subverted by the number of skilled laborers who could now provide food and proper shelter for the children, but...

"There's still the issue of the danger. We know this town has been attacked by two large monsters already, one quite recently. What will you do if more attacked?" asked one woman, adjusting her glasses as she peered at Terra.

The green-haired girl opened her mouth to answer, but was cut off by Ranma answering first. "We'll beat 'em," said the boy in a tone that left no doubt he meant it.

An older man with a white mustache glared at Ranma, and Terra could see that he was angry about something. "And if you **can't** 'beat them?'"

Ranma merely smirked at him. "We'll beat 'em more." His smirk widened when the older man got red in the face, and Terra could swear steam was about to blow out of the man's ears. "Don't strain yourself, old man."

"You should learn to respect your elders, brat!"

"Don't see why I gotta respect ya about having to fight something unless you can kick my ass," grinned the Saotome.

"Which raises another issue," began the woman, also glaring at Ranma. "That is, that this... environment may not be the best place to raise children. There are still at least a dozen who have no parents or relatives here. I can hardly imagine this boy is fit to raise them, nor can I believe you are, Miss Terra."

"Maybe I'm not," admitted Terra. "And maybe Ranma isn't either. But the children are happy here, and I've done my best to raise them these past two years. Are you next going to say that Duane and Katarin aren't fit to raise **their** child?"

Ranma glanced over at a nearby wall, as if looking through it. "They'll be good parents," he mused quietly, but didn't elaborate.

"Your endorsement of them only lowers my opinion of them." The woman tugged off her glasses, wiping them with a cloth. "With Kefka gone and his tower destroyed, the world can finally get back to normal. A normal that would mean those children should be raised in a loving home. One which you cannot provide."

Terra felt her anger boiling at those words, and she stood up, slapping the table and leaning forward on it, glaring at the woman. "How dare you! I have shed blood, sweat, and tears to ensure that you, those children, and everyone on this planet can finally get on with their lives without the fear that Kefka will decide to kill them! Every night, I wake up with the nightmare of Kefka finishing what he started when he first attacked Mobliz, and swore to do everything in my power to protect these children! I dared defy Kefka, standing up to destroy him when I realized how much I loved and wanted to protect these children, while you cowered in your homes, selfishly hoping his eye wouldn't turn on you!"

The three remaining outsiders stared at Terra, the woman white-faced and outright gaping. Ranma... looked impressed. The one person who hadn't spoken, a bald man with a bushy beard, finally began to speak again. "Miss Branford—"

"Leave." The three blinked, and Terra was surprised herself. But her anger was stronger, this time, than her shock. "I said leave."

"Miss Branford—" began the woman.

"**Now!**" yelled Terra, bringing a fist up and smashing it into the table with a noticeable crack. Surprisingly, despite the hole now put in the surface by the green-haired woman's fist, the table remained standing.

When, in the next ten seconds, it wholly collapsed, the three couldn't get out of the building fast enough.

"And don't let the door hit ya in the ass on the way out!" called Ranma.

Breathing heavily, Terra glanced at her fist, feeling the anger melting away as if it had never been. An anger, she realized, she had just let get the better of her. Yelling at those people hadn't been wrong. They were outsiders, people who were here just to challenge her right to raise the children who saw her as their mother. Lashing out had been. She had only just retained herself enough to hit the table. If she'd hit one of them like that...

She shuddered, clutching at herself, suddenly horrified. _What's wrong with me? What am I becoming? Why is this happening?_

"Terra?" Ranma. Standing next to her. Despair suddenly welled up in her, and she grabbed at his shirt, sobbing into his chest, causing him to stand straight and stiff as a board. "T-T-Terra? Wh-what's wrong?"

"Why is this happening?!" she wailed. "What's happening to me? All I want is to live in peace with the ones I love!"

_It's his fault!_ bellowed the voice of her 'father.' _Everything was fine until Ranma arrived! Kill him, my daughter!_

_No!_ wailed both of 'her' voices in response. _I won't hurt him, Father!_

_We won't hurt him for you! You're not Daddy!_

Clutching her head, Terra stumbled back. "R-Ranma! Get away! It's happening again!" Already, she could feel her blood beginning to boil again. As she resisted, she tasted first bile from her stomach roiling, then... blood.

_If you will not kill him,_ boomed the voice of her father, drowning out Ranma's yelling.

_I will,_ hissed a new voice, malevolent, filled with hatred. As this voice spoke, Terra's vision blurred, then blacked out completely.

* * *

**Post-Chapter Notes**

Behold! Cliffhanger!

As I said, don't think that just because Kefka's gone, that's the end of the antagonism.

I'll fully admit that Locke and Celes made their appearance walking just to serve as a plot device for finding Ryoga. Original plan was that they'd have been with Sabin and Setzer, but I changed it around a bit.

I'll also admit to stealing the symptoms of Terra's "berserk" state from King of Fighters' riot of the blood. I just couldn't resist. However, please note that this is an entirely different beast otherwise. One that makes a rioter seem like a three year old throwing a temper tantrum by comparison.

If it's not immediately obvious, then yes, Terra IS being manipulated. Thus why she's rebounding between emotional extremes. Will she recover? Or will it be Saffron and Kefka all over again for our heroes? You, the reader, decide!

... No, actually, you don't. It's just more dramatic to say it that way.

By the way, bonus points if you can find a very specific in-joke in one of Ranma's lines when he was talking to Terra. What do these bonus points do? Absolutely nothing. But they're fun anyway, right?

See you next mission!

**Edit: **Corrected a sudden error I noticed. Added "bonus points" bit to footnote.


End file.
